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Comment by nemesisj | Hacker News Reader

We specifically talk about how nobody, even myself as the CEO, is "above the law" with regards to our values. We've had several instances where values were invoked as reasons why we shouldn't want to do something that was against what I wanted to do. It was a surprise when it happened, but I deeply appreciated it. It's part of teamwork as sometimes people can lose site of things or by omission or oversight make decisions which aren't the best or aligned with a company's true mission. We talk a lot about this and I really hope that it continues.

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"We've had several instances where values were invoked as reasons why we shouldn't want to do something that was against what I wanted to do."

Then I commend you for rethinking. By doing so you've demonstrated that 1. The values actually mean something and 2. Even the CEO needs reminding therefore everyone should be able to hold each-other to account.

Depending on how you communicated point 2, you've made it easier for others in the org to be keepers of those values.

Corporate culture is fancy word for lowering wages by hyping up a company and thus shifting bargaining power from employees to employer.

I mean, I'm all for that, but let's call things for what they really are.

There is a huge issue in this - it used to be that there were much stronger labor movements to create employee cultures that were somewhat separate from employers/management

There can and should be ways to shift cultural control back to employees - but white collar jobs in general are not so prone to unionization (one of the major ways to do so)

What if the value in question is no longer relevant or is being abused to prevent change? How do you argue either case and try to remove or adapt the value?

Well, not to sound condescending, but we'd probably work through it together and see if maybe we need to change our values at some point. One of our values is "Always question everything" so we view it as a bit of future-proofing.

"Always question everything" taken to it's logical conclusion means the end of.... well, "always question everything".

That's why these type of "culture statements" are generally only useful in limited contexts and really often just more tools for getting people behind "what the boss wants".

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